This isn’t what America is about

Since Donald Trump became America’s president, there has been a daily barrage of disgusting videos, horrific pictures and scary audio files of people attacking others based on race and/or nationality. It seems impossible to check my Facebook page without learning about another disgusting racial bully. However, an attack I learned about on Monday (June 11) was particularly disgusting. It took place close to home. Browne’s Irish Marketplace, located at 33rd and Pennsylvania Avenue across from Penn Valley Community College in Kansas City, Mo., was the target of anti-immigrant vandalism. Store owners and neighbors discovered the graffiti early on Monday morning, which read “IMMIGRANTS NOT WELCOME.” Business owner John McCain didn’t notice the writing on his outer wall until a customer came in and said, “I’m sorry about your building.” McCain had no idea what he was talking about. After learning of the attack, McCain was beyond infuriated. The business owner shared with multiple media outlets that the message “is against everything we believe in. We’re just not that kind of people.”George Vial, a regular customer from Ireland who became a U.S. Citizen in 2017, was justifiably angry, too. “When you come here from another country, you adopt America and it adopts you, and it becomes your heart and soul,” Vial told the press. “And when you see this kind of hatred, that’s not what America’s about.”I couldn’t agree more. In 2004, when I came to this country, I fell in love with its people and its loving, accepting culture. This is definitely not what America is about. IMMIGRANTS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME.